A Structural History of the Casemated Redoubt Fort Henry Kingston, Ontario 1832-1957 (Revised) by David McConnell November 2002 A Structural History of the Casemated Redoubt Fort Henry Kingston, Ontario 1832-1957 (Revised) by David McConnell prepared for Dennis Carter-Edwards Ontario Service Centre Parks Canada Cornwall, Ontario We are proud to present you with this report. It represents our best professional effort to meet your project needs within the time and resources available. Thank you for this opportunity to serve you. Table of Contents 1 The Rise of Fort Henry 1832 – 1870 1 2 The Decline of Fort Henry 1870 – 1914 46 3 From Prisoner-of-War Camp to Historic Site 1914 – 1957 70 4 Summary 106 Appendices 110 Bibliography 152 Plans Separate Volume Fort Henry 1919 Detail from Bishop Barker Co., National Archives of Canada, PA-030467 Chapter 1 The Rise of Fort Henry 1832 – 1870 Building the Casemated Redoubt In London, in October 1829, a committee of four officers of the Royal Engineers, of which Sir Alexander Bryce was president, sat down to consider the proposed defences of Kingston, Upper Canada. Already in 1825, a commission headed by Sir James Carmichael Smyth, had investigated the problem and proposed that the fortifications on the heights of Point Henry to the east of the town be strengthened. Two years later, Lieutenant-Colonels Fanshawe and Lewis, members of a committee sent to Upper Canada to study the Rideau Canal, visited Kingston and decided that Smyth’s scheme would not adequately protect the naval dockyard or other stores depots nearby. They then ordered a survey to be made of the area to illustrate the local circumstances. In 1829, on orders of the Master General of the Ordnance and instructions of the Inspector General of Fortifications, the Bryce Committee examined the various documents relating to the proposed defence of Kingston and on 24 October submitted its report “...on the nature and extent of the Works, which, in their opinion, should be erected for the defence of this post, without materially exceeding the rough Estimate of £220,000...”1 The Committee proposed an extensive series of redoubts, towers, and batteries surrounding Kingston to protect the town from attack by land or water. Of these, the largest would be a casemated redoubt to replace the works that had been thrown up on the heights of Point Henry during the War of 1812. On carefully considering the position of the Fort on Point Henry together with the plans and Estimates very ably prepared by Lt Col: Wright for its improvement we are of opinion that owing to the confined nature of the ground (which will not admit of a Front of more than 84 Toises) and other unfavorable circumstances the chief of which is the great expense of excavating the Ditches and defilading the Work in solid Rock, from an amphitheatre of higher ground in front, a very objectionable Work would be obtained at a very great comparative expense. We have therefore been induced to propose altering the nature of this Work, from a bastioned Fort to a large Casemated Redoubt, defended by reverse Fire, which at little more than one third of the expense would we think [illegible, make?] this situation equally efficient, whilst the saving effected by this construction, with a moderate addition, would afford the means of executing several advanced works both on the Point Henry and Kingston sides, which we respectfully submit are essentially necessary for the security of the Dock yard and the Ordce and Commissariat stores on Point Henry.2 1 National Archives [henceforth NA], MG13, WO55/1886, Bryce to Mann, 24 Oct. 1829. 2 Ibid. The report then went on to outline very briefly the nature of the works that it thought would be adequate to fortify Point Henry. Point Henry. The Work we propose for this Point has been traced to command the Ridge in front, and that with a small Garrison, the ground on which the Depots of Ordnance and Commissariat Stores will be concentrated may be secured from a Coup de Main on the Land side. A Sea Battery on the rear will be necessary and may be constructed under protection of the Redoubt on such level as may be found on the spot most desirable for the object in view. Within the Redoubt will be casemated cover for 300 Men with their Officers and Stores of all kinds for its defence. Casemated Store rooms may be constructed in the rear for the intended Commissariat Depot, which will cover the communication with the Sea Battery. Flank Ditches being extended from the Ditch of the Redoubt to the Water on each side will enclose a great part of the existing Ordnance Stores and afford a safe position for such others as it may be found necessary to erect.3 It was to be over two years later, however, before a decision was finally made to build the Casemated Redoubt on Point Henry. Toward the end of January 1832, the Master General of the Ordnance met with Lord Goderich, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and Lord Althorpe, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, to present the Bryce Committee’s plan for the defence of Kingston. The Master General put forward two arguments in favour of the Bryce Committee’s plan, one military and the other financial. First, he claimed that Bryce’s plan would provide greater security to the town and harbour. Secondly, he pointed out that the building of the largest redoubt, the one on Point Henry, would cost some £100,000 less than the reconstruction of the old fort on Point Henry as proposed by the Smyth Commission of 1825. Bryce’s scheme contained the added advantage of allowing for the piecemeal building of the defensive system of Kingston as Parliament voted the necessary funds from year to year rather than its having to vote for a large work which might remain unfinished for lack of funds. Goderich and Althorpe were convinced by the Master General’s presentation and agreed that the necessary orders should immediately be given to begin building the Casemated Redoubt on Point Henry. On 2 February, the instructions of Sir Alexander Bryce, now Inspector General of Fortifications, were duly sent to the Commanding Royal Engineer in Canada, Gustavus Nicolls, to begin building the Casemated Redoubt on Point Henry.4 While the decision to build the Casemated Redoubt on Point Henry was taken in England, the plans for Fort Henry, as the new work came to be called, were drawn up in Upper Canada. Indeed, in 1826, in anticipation of some works being built at Kingston, the Board of Ordnance had authorized an officer “...to quarry Stone and make all other preliminary preparations short of 3 Ibid. 4 NA, MG13, WO55/869, pp.16-18, Minute, 30 Jan. 1832; Byham to Bryce, 2 Feb. 1832. 2 breaking ground for the foundation of the works...”5 Thus by 1832, a large stockpile of building material had been assembled. Plans and sections of the proposed fortification and estimates of amounts and costs of materials were prepared under the supervision of Lieutenant-Colonel J. R. Wright, Commanding Royal Engineer in Upper Canada, stationed at Kingston. In mid-July 1832, he sent them to Lieutenant-Colonel Gustavus Nicolls, Commanding Royal Engineer in Canada, at Quebec, for approval and transmission to England. The plans and estimates called for a six-sided casemated redoubt surrounded by a dry ditch. (The original plans drawn up by the Bryce Committee in 1829 called for a five sided redoubt; Nicolls changed these, see below.6) Two smaller ditches were to extend from the main east and west ditches to the water’s edge, thus cutting off the southern portion of Point Henry where a sea battery and commissariat storehouses were to be erected. The north front of the redoubt was to be made up of three faces, two stories high while the east, west, and south faces were one story in height. The foundations, walls, ramparts, scarp, and counterscarp were to be made of rubble masonry and lined with ashlar limestone. The piers of the casemates were to be constructed of rubble masonry and the arches of brick. Over the arches dry rubble was packed down up to the level of the terreplein which was made up of a mixture of rubble and gravel. The ditch on the north, east, and west sides was to be defended by casemated reverse fire chambers built into the northeast and northwest corners of the counterscarp; a casemated caponier extending across the mid-point of the north ditch was to provide additional defence. The south ditch was to be defended by demi-bastions at the junction of the south face with the east and west faces of the redoubt.7 (See Appendix 1 for estimates and Plans 1, 2, and 3 for plans and sections.) Once the decision to build was taken, no time was lost in beginning work on Fort Henry. Even before the plans and estimates were completed “...the excavation of the Rock for the Ditch, Escarp Wall, & Casemates of the Land Front was commenced on 18 June and I [Nicolls] think the masonry of this Front ought to begin during this month [July].” Nicolls reported that, on his own initiative, he had made an alteration in the design of the redoubt. Originally, the north front was to be composed of two faces; Nicolls redesigned it with three faces. He explained: I have made an alteration in the Land Front, in making it of three faces instead of two, in consequence of the Redoubt No 1.